Declaration by United Nations signed
On January 1st, 1942, representatives of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and many other Allied nations signed a joint pledge in Washington, known as the Declaration by United Nations.
Search & discovery
ONE SEARCH. A WIDER HISTORY.
Find a person, battle, citation, article, book or episode. Start with a name or identifier, then explore the connections.
489 results for “Wars & Historical Eras”
Showing 163–180
Declaration of Independence
On this day in Philadelphia, delegates of the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, transforming an armed rebellion into a war for national survival. Fighting had already broken out at Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, and along the Canadian frontier, but now the Continental Army, Navy, and Marine forces served an independent United States rather than protesting colonies.
Declaration Read to the Continental Army in New York
On a July evening in New York, Continental soldiers assembled to hear the newly adopted Declaration of Independence read aloud. Many of these men had been fighting British regulars for more than a year, but this moment tied their service to a clear political break with the Crown. The words about unalienable rights and government by consent took on a sharper meaning for troops who faced invasion from the sea as Britis
Defense Intelligence Agency activates
In the early 1960s, as Cold War crises multiplied from Berlin to Southeast Asia, American leaders recognized that military intelligence needed more unified direction.
Defense of Little Round Top
A story of a desperate hilltop stand, a fixed bayonet charge, and how it helped turn a Civil War invasion back.
Dirk John Cornelius Vlug
The jungle pressed in on both sides of the Ormoc Road, a narrow ribbon of mud and broken pavement cutting through the hills near Limon on the island of Leyte. December rain had turned the ditches into brown pools. American infantrymen crouched behind a hasty roadblock of felled trees, sandbags, and wrecked vehicles, listening to the grinding approach of steel.
Discovery of Special Order 191
In the Maryland countryside, as Confederate General Robert E.
Dogs Join the Army
Two days after MacArthur’s departure, the Army formalized something more modest but surprisingly far-reaching by authorizing a program for military working dogs, often called the K-9 Corps. Until then, dogs had occasionally served in ad hoc roles, but wartime needs for better guard forces, patrols, and messengers pushed leaders to standardize training and employment.
Doolittle Raid
A story of a long-shot bombing raid, a borrowed carrier deck, and how one gamble shifted the course of a global war.
Doolittle Raid on Japan
Barely four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States planned a strike to carry the war to the Japanese home islands. On April 18th, 1942, sixteen B-25 medium bombers led by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle took off from the carrier USS Hornet in the Pacific, a feat never attempted before with aircraft of that size. Spotted early by enemy patrol vessels, the task force launched the bombers farther
Elbe Day at Torgau
As the Second World War in Europe approached its end, converging Allied armies squeezed the shrinking territory of Nazi Germany from east and west. On April 25th, 1945, elements of the United States 69th Infantry Division, advancing eastward, encountered units of the Soviet 58th Guards Rifle Division near the town of Torgau on the Elbe River. Soldiers from both sides crossed the ruined landscape to shake hands on a d
Emancipation Proclamation takes effect
On January 1st, 1863, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation officially took effect, transforming the nature of the Civil War.
End of the Battle of Iwo Jima
While armies crossed rivers in Europe, Marines in the Pacific were still locked in some of the war’s most brutal island battles. United States forces had landed on Iwo Jima in February 1945, attacking a volcanic fortress where Japanese defenders used tunnels, caves, and concrete bunkers to make every yard of ground costly. The famous flag raising on Mount Suribachi took place early in the campaign, but heavy fighting
Enrollment Act creates the first nationwide Union draft
As the Civil War ground into its third year, the Union’s volunteer pool began to thin, and the government faced the reality that enthusiasm alone would not sustain huge field armies. On March 3rd, 1863, the Enrollment Act became law, creating the first nationwide system of conscription in United States history.
Eric Gunnar Gibson
The winter sky over the Anzio beachhead was a low, gray lid, pressing the sound of guns back down onto the men below. Along a shallow drainage ditch called the Fossa Femminamorta, muddy water slid past tufts of grass and shattered reeds. Somewhere ahead, beyond the next bend, German machine guns covered the open fields that stretched away from the ditch, anchoring a strongpoint that threatened the entire attack.
Esek Hopkins and the first American fleet commander
In the early months of the Revolution, the Continental Congress moved from ad-hoc privateers to something closer to a real navy by appointing Esek Hopkins as commander in chief of the Continental Navy.
Establishment of the Revenue Cutter Service
On August 4th, 1790, the young federal government took a practical step to secure both its finances and its coasts. Responding to proposals from Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Congress authorized the construction of a small fleet of revenue cutters to enforce customs laws and combat smuggling. These fast sailing vessels and their crews patrolled harbors and coastal routes, boarding ships, checking carg
Evacuation Day at Boston
Almost a year into the Revolutionary War, the siege of Boston had ground on with neither side able to deliver a decisive blow. General George Washington’s Continental troops ringed the city while British regulars and Royal Navy ships held the harbor and town, each side suffering from supply problems and disease.